Reaction to the Pennsylvania voter ID ruling

January 22, 2014

Hour 1
Guests: Vic Walczak, Linda Kerns and Richard Hasan

After two years of legal wrangling, Pennsylvania’s controversial voter identification law was struck down in the state court on Friday. Commonwealth Judge Bernard McGinley ruled that the law requiring voters to show a state-approved photo at the polls placed an unreasonable burden on voters. He also said that the Commonwealth’s education campaign about the new voter ID requirements only confused the state’s voters. The law was enacted in 2012 and was immediately challenged in the courts by the American Civil Liberties Union and several other organizations. This morning, we’ll get reaction to the ruling from VIC WALCZAK, legal director of the Pennsylvania ACLU and LINDA KERNS, a member of the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the Republican Lawyer’s Association. Then we’ll get an update on voter id laws nationally from RICHARD HASEN, professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine.

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